Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
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Question 377: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the funding available to a sporting organisation to facilitate with the purchase of land to expand training facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41133/06]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, is the primary means of providing Government funding for sports facilities. Projects submitting an application to the programme must be directly related to the provision of sport and recreational sport facilities and be of a capital nature, which, for the purpose of the programme, is defined as:

expenditure on the improvement or construction of an asset and includes any costs directly incurred in this process; and

purchase of permanently based sports equipment, i.e. it is securely housed, and will remain in use for 5 years or more.

The sports capital programme, however, does not assist in the purchase of sites or premises.

Section 847a of the Taxes Consolidation Act provides for a scheme for tax relief for relevant donations to approved sports bodies towards the funding of sports capital projects. Approved sports status can be awarded by my Department for suitable capital projects, allowing for tax relief to be claimed by a club on donations towards the project that exceed the minimum qualifying threshold of €250 per annum. This scheme does allow for donations to be raised towards the cost of the purchase of land to be used by the approved sports body in the provision of sporting or recreation facilities. Full details of the tax relief scheme are available on my Department's website at www.dast.gov.ie.